My family has always been based in the south, and long before we had sports stores in our main malls (Festival and ATC), we've always had Toby's Sports.

Last night, I celebrated with Toby's Sports as they marked their 40th year anniversary with a grand party called "It's Game Time". The event was held in a huge venue in Metrowalk Ortigas, graced by Toby's supporters from all walks of life: from the big bosses, employees, franchisees, partners, athletes, and us friends from the media. They commemorated all the people that were part of their four successful decades in the industry. It also coincides with the retirement of Toby's chief executive officer Mr. Bobby Claudio.

Sharing photos from last night's event, and my "if I have the money" list of stuff I am eyeing in Toby's!

Don't we all dream of something like this?

One seemingly normal morning, and you get up on your usual wake up time since there were no events and meetings that day. You go through the usual social media notifications, friends' updates, and dog memes, and then open your email and swipe swipe swipe deleting spam mails. Then you saw an event invite with the title: Invitation To Join Mimi Shop Makeover.

Upon opening the email, you read through and your heart started pumping fast as it turns out to be an invitation to fly for free to South Korea and meet Sandara Park in her new show! 😱 Otoke! Is this real!?? Is this legit!? Of course it is, the email sender is from Viu Philippines!! You checked the dates alongside your calendar, still disoriented since you just woke up, and then realized that the flight just happened to be scheduled THE. NEXT. F. DAY.

"Glass Skin" equates to poreless, dewy, translucent, and even healthy skin. It's no wonder why a lot are going gaga just to achieve it! I first heard about Glass Skin from Koreans I think almost a year ago. Amidst all the clamor for anything matte (lips, face, etc), here is a look that finally made me appreciate my oily skin. The key here is to look more natural and effortless.

There are several ways to fake glass skin through makeup, but I learned from yesterday's events that when you take care of your skin, Glass Skin becomes effortless! I am thinking of writing a separate post on how to achieve glass skin with makeup since I did need to cheat a little a little help for having uneven skin tone and acne marks. But for now, the base is important so let's focus on skincare!

I cannot imagine going to Korea without shopping! 💸

They have the best selection of sneakers and beauty products, plus my family is super addicted to their snack called honey almonds.

During my recent trip, I only had 3 days in Seoul. The second day is already fully dedicated to work (Mimi Shop), and the last day is already my flight back to Manila. But bilang #teamavail, I made sure to maximize the few hours I had during our FIRST day kahit na mga 3pm na kami naka check in sa hotels. I just rested a bit, then ravan agad!

So many things happened for the past weeks since I got back from Europe, that this dream trip that I've saved up for a long time now felt like a looong long time ago. It's so sad that memories and moments are fleeting, but then again, maybe this is also the reason why I became so masipag in blogging every bit of the remaining details that I can remember from my travels. I always quote the great writer Anais Nin on this: "We write to taste life twice".

Anyway, this blog post is about the things I brought and the outfits I came up with during our "backpacking" around 6 countries of Eastern Europe. As you can see, I had to put those punctuation marks in "backpacking" to pay respect to real backpackers haha--because technically, only my Ate (elder sister) suffered from carrying one HUGE backpack for this trip. She managed it well--The European Style! 👌 Meanwhile, I had to give my old back a break by separating my stuff into 2 semi-big bags -- one a carry-on and the other is a Cabin Zero backpack.

I was able to shop yesterday in Unarosa's Megamall branch, and true enough, on a weekday and alanganin ang oras, ang dami nang tao inside the store carrying their overflowing shopper bags!!

Decided to share what I got just so you know that legit ang sale, and the items are really nice pieces and not yung typical store sale na di naman maganda yung nakalabas na styles! Haha!

UNAROSA decided to have their 2-week SUPER SALE from August 15 to 31 in celebration of their 10th anniversary! As I heard them say yesterday, it's not everyday they get to celebrate their 10th year diba? So why not pasabog! Haha! Scroll down for the haul + original price of each items!

The most unexpected thing happened to me last week. 

It's not even a "once in a lifetime" moment, but a NEVER EVEN POSSIBLE chance for someone like me! The whole time I was thinking, what did I do to deserve this? I am not worthy! Haha! I felt sooo grateful to Viu Philippines, JTBC, and Mimi Shop for proving to me that dreams really do come true. And if it can happen to me... It can happen to you too!

A lot can be said about Oslo, but to me first and foremost, Oslo is home to many of my Gonzales fam.

I've always wanted to go to Norway ever since I was a kid. I've heard it so many times from my father's side of the family, because two of his siblings are based there (one is even married to a Norwegian). My cousins will visit the country from time to time, bringing with them chunks of the best cheese I've ever tasted in my life, and blocks and blocks of chocolates!!! During Christmas time, they will also send postcards with snowy houses and their updated family pictures with the greeting "God Jul!". 

So before the funny Norwegia issue in Manila, or the beautiful Northern Lights in everyone's bucket lists, those are my first impressions of Norway. 

I'd say, the easiest piece of clothing to pack for your travels is a pretty dress. Just slip on one, and you're good to go! I love that dresses now come in different options from length, prints, and cuts, plus whatever you decide to wear with them makes a big difference in your look!

As they say, your trip starts not when you reach your destination, but the moment you boarded the plane. This is the start of our journey.